Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
It was a part of the Sportsman’s Holiday-Frontier Days experience decades ago, and now the Sportsman’s Holiday Court coordinators bringing back the Junior Sportsman’s Holiday Court.
Coordinator Mary Sue Reynolds was on the court when she was 6, and her happy memories from it have prompted her and Coordinator Karla Burcham to bring it back.
“We have been trying to do it the last three years, but we’ve always been so busy,” Burcham said. “Mary Sue enjoyed it when she was a child. She remembers it now, and she’s 49 now.
“When the 17-year-old prin-cesses are out and about, the little girls always come up and say they want to be a princess.”
This will be their chance, Burcham said. “It’s just for fun.”
If there are problems or no interest, Burcham said, the coordinators won’t do it again next year, but they thought it would be fun to try to put it together.
“We have no idea what level of response we’re going to find,” Burcham said.
Burcham said she has talked to District 55 Supt. Larry Horton about approaching the district’s first-grade classes.
“We’d like to have the girls (the Sportsman’s Holiday Court) get up and do it,” she said. It’s good practice for them to get up in front of a class and do some public speaking.
Horton is checking into whether the court will be able to visit classrooms, Burcham said, but the court will distribute fliers to firstr-grade girls.
Burcham and Reynolds plan to have eight to 10 on the junior court, Burcham said. It will be open to all eight first-grade classes in District 55 along with Sweet Home Charter School and East Linn Christian Academy.
Any girls in the first grade who are interested may fill out a form either when the Sportsman’s Holiday Court visits their class or by picking an application at The New Era and other locations to be announced.
Burcham and Reynolds were busy putting together criteria last weekend to get application forms out this week, and they plan to select the court by May 15.
The junior court’s duties are limited to Sportsman’s Holiday, Burcham said. “We’re going to have them ride in the parade with us. We’re having a Queen’s tea afterward that the girls would go to with us.”
Each member of the regular Sportsman’s Holiday Court has been given an assignment, Burcham said. Two of the princesses are assigned to help Burcham and Reynolds coordinate the junior court.
More details will be available later. For more information, call Burcham at 401-3339.